Sustained by God's Promises
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· 10 viewsFaith in God's promises empowers his people for endurance.
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Title: Sustained by God’s Promises
Title: Sustained by God’s Promises
Tonight we are going to be looking at Isa 40:27-31
Let me start by reading the last verse
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
I am preaching not from a place of having come close to mastering this subject…
That of not being weary, and not growing faint…
I have been weary and tired…
Not even physically from working hard
but emotionally
In fact, those who know me best might describe me as a person who is often anxious, and due to my anxiety I often feel exhausted…
This has been especially true with all that has been going on in the world recently and in my personal life.
So know this, I’m preaching this tonight as one who has much to repent of in this area...
I am sharing this with you, because this Scripture has supplied me with encouragement and hope
Let’s dive into this text:
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
What is happening here is this… God’s people are accusing God of not caring for them in their suffering.
Israel has been exiled in Babylon, and because of this, they think they are hidden from God… as if he doesn’t see them
God’s people here believe that their right… that is God’s justice towards them… has been disregarded or ignored by God
All their thoughts and ideas about God are being made on the basis of their current experience in exile…
1) Our knowledge of God should come from God’s revelation of himself and not our personal experience.
1) Our knowledge of God should come from God’s revelation of himself and not our personal experience.
Don’t get me wrong, we can experience God. But a true experience of God does not happen apart from a real revelation of God. And a real revelation of God comes through his word
If our understanding of God is based off of our experiences, we will grow disheartened and weary…
Why? Because of seasons like this
Where we see and experience all kinds of suffering
And these experiences lead to thoughts like:
God does not see me
He does not care for me
He doesn’t hear my cry
God is too busy to meet my needs
or even he is unable to meet my needs
These ideas about God are not true, and furthermore our thoughts about God are deceitful when they are uninformed by God’s revelation of himself.
This is what the enemy has been doing since Genesis 3
He causes us to question the goodness of God
But we should know who God is not based on our experiences, rather we know him through his word
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
… Have you not know? Have you not heard?
(That is to say… have you heard God’s word which contains the revelation of God so that me might know the attributes of God)
And then the attributes of God that are recorded in the Scripture are are listed out
God is everlasting - that is to say he has no beginning or end
There is no one and nothing else in all creation that can make this claim
So we should not begin to place our human limits on God, because he is not like anything else in all creation in this regard
God is not limited by time
He is the creator of the ends of the earth
In the ancient world, no one had yet explored the ends of the earth… so this idea would have been unfathomable much like the idea of God being everlasting and eternal…
But even in todays standard, consider the ends of the universe (if you even can) again, we have yet to even explore the furthest reaches of space and yet God created them all with the word of his mouth…
God is not limited by space
God does not faint or grow weary
Again, what man can claim this? Even the best of us become exhausted as we will see in a moment…
And it is this weariness, with our limited time in history, and our limits in space that really begin to make us realize how finite we are in comparison to the infinite nature of God
God is not limited in his strength
And finally, he says that God’s understanding is unsearchable…
that is to say God is all wise
and all the searching for wisdom on man’s part cannot be compared to God’s wisdom
We see this:
God is not limited in time
he is not limited in space
he is not limited in strength
and he is not limited in wisdom
This is what God has revealed in his word, and yet men say silly things like…
God you don’t see me
you don’t care for me
you don’t know what is best in the world
God you have ignored my plight…
These thoughts are inconsistent with the nature of God that has been revealed in his word.
Let’s get back to the Scripture
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
2) Apart from God, our strength will always fail.
2) Apart from God, our strength will always fail.
Similarly to how our knowledge of God must come from God…
so too must our strength come from God
Youths/young men… will be faint, weary and exhausted
that is to say, even the most energetic among us… they too grow tired
Here’s the deal, you who are young
Do not expect your energy to sustain you
Do not think that your passions will take you to greater heights
Do not look to your own strength to get things done.
For if you do, you will fail because you are not God.
While God is not limited by time, space, strength, or wisdom....
you and I are limited in all these ways
But know rightly
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
And when he does this:
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
While most of this verse describes the energy and and strength that is given by God… the means by which one receives strength is easily overlooked.
Is at the very beginning....
those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength
3) Our strength is renewed only when we patiently trust God.
3) Our strength is renewed only when we patiently trust God.
that’s what it means when we wait for the Lord
Wait - implies time passing…
and each promise associated with the strength that is given is a future oriented…
SHALL renew their strength
SHALL mount up with wings like eagles
SHALL run and not be weary
SHALL walk and not faint
So when it says that we wait, that means that we need patience....
But it is our lack of patience in our waiting, that produces the false accusations against God in v 27
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
for while we might be weary from all the sufferings that we experience today, there will come a day where God will make right everything.
he has promised it…
he has said it in his word
And God will accomplish this work
because unlike you and me…
God is not bound
not by time
or space
or strength
or wisdom
And so our strength that we have does not come from a place where we never experience the effects of the fall here on earth,
Rather our strength is supplied by the hope that we have in God’s faithfulness to his word, and his ability to do everything to accomplish his promises.
How do you know that God is strong and able to keep his promises?
In what ways do you rely on your own strength?
When you rely on your own strength what is the outcome?
Isaiah 40:31 says that those “who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.” what does it mean to wait for the LORD and what does this look like?